Cargo net, cargo sling, and the like



De- 6, 1938- c. L oUTTlT CARGO NET, CARGO SLING, AND THE LIKE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 4, 1938 Y/ Mbwl Dec. 6, 1938. C. LOUTT|T 2,139,195

CARGO NET, CARGO SLING, AND THE LIKE Filed May 4, 193s 2 sheets-Sheet 2 /ll I Patented Dec. 6, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Application May 4, 1938, Serial No. 206,069 In Great Britain June 3, 1937 4 Claims.

The present invention relates to nets of twisted cordage, of fibre or wire referred to, for convenience, hereinafter as rope. The'invention is of particular value as applied to cargo nets or other 5 articles made of net and designed to hold or to resist impact by heavy objects or articles.

In the usual form of net which is made up of spaced warps and wefts to give a predetermined mesh, it is difficult to maintain such predetermined size of mesh under all conditions of use. For example, impact by heavy objects upon the net or the carriage of heavy articles in a sling or carrier formed by the net tends to spread the meshes. In the case of cargo slings, for example, there is a risk of the goods spreading the meshes during use and dropping through the mesh. Many eiorts have been made to solve this problem, such as, for example, by tying the warps and wefts at the corners of each mesh, but during use of the net as a cargo sling it has been found that this is wholly insufficient, ,as no matter whether the warps and wefts are tied together or are held by additional means, the strain on the net may often be such as to cause loosening of the tying medium or separation of the additional means.

The object of the present invention is to avoid this difl'iculty, and according to the present invention each warp and weft is made up of at least two interwound ropes each consisting of a number of strands, the corners of the meshes each being formed by threading one rope of a. warp between the strands of one rope of the weft and another rope of the same weft between the strands of such rope of the warp whilst the rst mentioned rope of the weft passes between the strands of the second rope of the same warp and this second rope of the warp passes between the strands of the second rope of theweft.

Thus in effect, prior to the application of tension to the warps and wefts, the junction of a warp and weft constituting a corner of a mesh, comprises a small enclosed gure substantially in the form of a rectangle, each of the sides of which taken in succession consists of a rope part of a warp or weft, the strands of one end of which are divided to form an eyelet for a rope part of a weft or warp passing at right angles thereto, and at the other end passes bodily through the divided srands of another rope part of said weft or warp.

After formation of a corner of a mesh, the ropes of each warp or weit may be wound upon themselves in the direction of lay of the strands until the junction of the next corner of the mesh is reached, whereupon the same process of threading is carried out.

Instead oi winding the strandsin one group to `constitute a rope the strands may be wound into two or a multiple of two groups to form a 5 rope in which event one of the ropes of a warp or weft may be threaded between the groups of strands constituting one of the ropes of a weft or warp respectively. Further in contradistinction ,to the construction in which each rope consists of a number of strands constituting a single group with the ropes wound upon each other in the direction of lay of the strands, the invention isv modified where multiple groups of strands are provided to form a rope, in that the group of 15 strands may be wound upon each other in the direction of lay whilst the two ropes of a warp or a weit may be wound between corners of a meshin the opposite direction to that of the lay. 20

The invention is more particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in` which:-

AFigure 1 shows a complete mesh of a wire net.

Figure 2 is an enlarged View of one of the corners of the mesh, being a front view of thetop left hand or bottom right hand corner or a reverse view of the other two corners.

Figure 3 is a view similar to that of Figure 2 30 but showing a modified form of construction, wherein two groups of strands are wound to form a rope.

In Figures 1 and 2 of the drawings, each of the wire ropes Hl, Il of the net constituting the warp 35 thereof, and each rope l2, i3 of the net constitilting the weit, is made up of a shroud-laid wire cable of six interwound strands with each strands made up of finer strands laid together about a fibrous, core. It will be appreciated, however, 40 that the number of strands wound to form each rope may be varied as desired, whilst again the number of ner strands which when assembled constitute a main strand may similarly be varied. Where however, the strands are of fibre 45 as distinct from wire they may be suitable twisted or spun.

At the junction of a Warp and a weft which constitutes the top left hand or the bottom right 50 hand corner of a mesh (Figure 1), the rope I0 of a warp is rst threaded through an eyelet formedat Ill between the strands of a rope I3 constituing one of the ropes of a weft, whereupon the rope l0 itself is divided to form an eyelet for 55 the passage therethrough of the rope I2 of such weft as shown at I5.

Similarly at the same junction of the warp and weft the strands of the rope Il of the warp are first divided to form an eyelet I6 for the passage therethrough of the rope I3 of the weft, whereupon the rope II passes at I'I through an eyelet formed by separating the strands of the rope I2 of the weft of the net. In effect, therefore, a small closed figure substantially in the form of a rectangle is produced at each junction of a warp and weft. When the sides of the rectangle at the top left hand corner or bottom right hand corner of a mesh according to Figure 1 are considered in succession while traversing the rectangle in the same direction, namely a clockwise direction, each rope I0, I2, II and I3, taken in this order, rst passes through an eyelet of a rope substantially at right angles thereto and thence is divided to form an eyelet for the passage therethrough of the other rope at right angles thereto.

The other two corners of each mesh may be made identically similar to that of the top left hand corner of Figure 1, but in the construction shown the ropes I2, I3 are reversed, that is to say they are Wound in the manner described, but the sides of the small rectangle taken continuously must be considered in an anti-clockwise direction if each rope is to be considered rstly as passing through an eyelet of one rope at right angles thereto and secondly is divided to form an eyelet for the passage therethough of the said rope at right angles. In other words, the bottom left and top right handed corners are in effect, rear views of the top left and bottom right hand corners. If desired however all corners of the mesh when viewed from the front may be of identical appearance.

In the construction shown in the drawings, and after the formation of each corner of a mesh, the ropes IU and Il of a warp are wound upon themselves in the direction of lay of the strands of the ropes until the next corner of a mesh is reached, whereupon the same process of threading is carried out. This applies equally to the ropes of each weft. If desired however the ropes I 0, I I may be Wound upon themselves in a direction opposite to the lay of the strands of the ropes.

In the modified form of construction illustrated in Figure 3, which corresponds to a front view of the top right hand and bottom left hand corner of the mesh of Figure 1 or again a rear view of the other two corners, but with a modied construction of rope in each case, one rope of each warp is made up of separate groups of strands lla, IUb and the other rope is made up of similar groups IIa, IIb. Again one rope of a weft is made up of groups I 2a, I 2b of strands and the other rope of the weft is made up of groups I300, I3b of strands.

'I'his construction diiers from that of Figures 1 and 2 solely by virtue of the fact that the strands ofA each rope are divided up into groups of separate laying with the result that there is no necessity to divide the strands for forming an eyelet. On the contrary, all that is necessary for the purpose of passing a rope of a warp through a rope of a weft and vice versa at the junction of a mesh is to separate slightly the groups of strands of a weft in the span between adjacent windings and to pass both groups of the Warp rope through the eyelet thus formed.

The separation of the strands of the warps and wefts at each junction where a mesh corner is formed, does not materially affect the tensile strength of each warp or weft, but the nature of the threading is such that irrespective of the tensile load which is applied'to the warps and wefts during use of the net, it is well-nigh impossible to increase the size of any particular mesh at the expense of adjacent meshes. As a result, so long as the net is subjected to the impact or pressure of objects or articles of greater size than the predetermined mesh, there is no danger of such objects or articles forcing a passage through the meshes. For example, in the case of a cargo sling there is no danger of heavy articles enlarging a mesh and dropping therethrough during loading or unloading between a ship and a quay, for example. Further the nature of the formation of the meshes is such that the threaded ropes at the corners of the meshes become more tightly held with increase in load, that is to say, the greater the load, the more certain is the resistance to inadvertent Variations of the size of the meshes.

It will be seen that by the aid of the present invention it is possible entirely to dispense with any additional means at the corners of each mesh for maintaining said corners in position, the tensile load on the warps and wefts being sufcient to achieve this object. As a result when the net is used as a cargo sling, there is no need for additional care when endeavouring to remove a net from its contents when the net with its load has reached the quay or the ship, and access to the contents is desired to enable the net to be returned to its loading position without necessarily separating the contents, as is usual in loading and unloading ships at quays.

Reference has been made to the use of the net of the present invention in loading and unloading cargo to and from ships for example. It will be appreciated that the net of the present invention may be equally applicable for use as a torpedo net or again as a boom defence net or further for placing above buildings in order to render these safe against air attack.

I declare that what I claim is:-

1. A rope net the meshes of which are formed by warps and wefts each made up of at least two interwound ropes each of which consists of a number of strands, the corners of the meshes being formed by threading one rope of a warp between the strands of one rope of a weft and another rope of the same weft between the strands of such rope of the warp, whilst the first mentioned rope of the weft passes between the strands of the second rope of the same warp and this second rope of the warp passes between the strands of the second rope of the weft.

2. A rope net the meshes of which are formed by warps and wefts each made up of at least two interwound ropes in which the junction of a warp and weft constituting a corner 01 a mesh comprises a small enclosed ligure of substantially rectangular shape, each of the sides of which considered in succession consists of a warp or weft of a rope part, the strands of one end of which are divided to form an eyelet for a weft or warp of a rope part passing at right angles thereto and at the other end passes bodily through the divided strands of a weft or Warp of another of said rope parts.

3. A rope net as claimed in claim l, in which the ropes of a warp or of a weft are wound upon each other in the direction of lay of the strands of said ropes.

4. A rope net as claimed in claim 1 in which of the ropes of a weft or Warp respectively and the strands are woven in separate groups with itself being divided for the passage between its the groups interwound in a direction opposite to groups of another rope of the weft or warp, at the lay of the strands to constitute one rope of a each corner of the mesh.

5 warp or a weft, each rope of a Warp or weft being passed bodily between the groups constituting one CHARLES LOUTTIT. 

